Charles Bishop was an honor student and his friends described him as a "nice
guy".

On January 5, 2002, the 15-year-old stole a small single engine plane and
crashed it into the Bank of America building in Tampa, Florida. He left a
suicide notein his pocket which was found
immediately but wasn't made public until January 9, although details were
given on January 6. When it first happened, all anyone knew was a teenager
had stolen a plane and it crashed into the BoA building.

Instead of reporting the news as the story was known or giving as much of the
story as was known at the time, the media did what it's best at and does what
I loathe them for - - they invented, padded, slanted, spun, speculated, demonized
and made things up to get the bigger Ghoul Factor-slash-rating out of it.
They found talking heads and experts to muse and analyze. (I reached my point
of tolerance for this type of 'reporting' during the 9-11 attack when so much
was misreported, jumped on and never retracted and finally Jerry Springered
all for the sake of ratings that it passed 'bad taste', went into 'irresponsible"
and and then 'criminal'').

CNN called in 'experts' who didn't really care if they were getting it wrong or
not but were happy to get their names on TV and fill in the hours until the truth
was known. Why bother? I thought it was disgraceful, them ripping up a kid for
sport.

"Expert Aviation analyst" Jim McKenna was on CNN, spewing this crap:

CNN: Do you see this crash as a copycat incident in the aftermath of
the September 11 plane attacks on Washington and New York?

MCKENNA: I doubt it. You know, the Federal Aviation Administration was
able to track this airplane. You know, it's a young pilot who had really just
started his flight training. He was being pursued at the time by a Coast Guard
helicopter, which would be a startling circumstance for any new pilot in an airplane.
I bet that he probably hit that building because he just lost sense of where he
was in the sky. You know, it's interesting to note that the airplane hit the side
of the building. Where if you look at the World Trade Center attacks, those planes
pretty much aimed for the center of the building. I would bet that this kid was
trying to fly past the building and missed his mark.

The suicide note found in Charles' pocket said: "I have prepared this
statement in regards to the acts I am about to commit. First of all, Osama
bin Laden is absolutely justified in the terror he has caused on 9-11. He
has brought a mighty nation to its knees! God blesses him and the others who
helped make September 11th happen. The U.S. will have to face the consequences
for its horrific actions against the Palestinian people and Iraqis by its
allegiance with the monstrous Israelis--who want nothing short of world domination!
You will pay--God help you--and I will make you pay! There will be more coming!
Al Qaeda and other organizations have met with me several times to discuss
the option of me joining. I didn't. This is an operation done by me only.
I had no other help, although, I am acting on their behalf. Osama bin Laden
is planning on blowing up the Super Bowl with an antiquated nuclear bomb left
over from the 1967 Israeli-Syrian war."

Yet his mother said he had been as upset and horrified at the attack as the
rest of us. Charles was apparently a troubled kid. And this is what bothered
me..he WAS a kid - a minor. Yet CNN and the rest of them couldn't wait a few
hours until they got to the body and found the truth before they had their
'experts' on to invent story and pick Charles' mind and motive. There also
apparently is no such thing as "respect" anymore...and so the circus
began.

Bishop's mother and grandmother responded to it all by filing a $70 million
law suit against Roche Laboratories, who make the acne medicine Accutane.
The drug is thought by some to have serious side effects. The label on the
medicine does state that side effects can include "depression, psychosis
and, rarely, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and suicide. Discontinuation
of Accutane therapy may be insufficient; further evaluation may be necessary".
The New York Times reported that in 2002, doctors reported 94 suicides in
the U.S. by Accutane users or recent users and another 257 who were hospitalized
with extreme depression or attempted suicide.

Only one of the lawsuits filed against Roche has gone to trial so far; the
woman lost the case. However, Roche was reprimanded by the Food and Drug Administration
for failing to follow quality control procedures at facilities in New Jersey
and Puerto Rico. They agreed to mail about 75,000 brochures to dermatologists
and other doctors with information on how to recognize signs of depression
and other psychiatric disorders in teenagers and young adults. This was all
they were made to do. And of course, be able to say that their product had
nothing to do with Charles' state of mind.

Charles' mom also said that she and Charles' father had attempted suicide together
years earlier but it had "just been the result of drug and alcohol use
when they were young". And of course, they had nothing to do with Charles'
state of mind.